Serrated Spyderco for EDC?

sph3ric pyramid

sph3ric pyramid

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Jul 24, 2002
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I've always carried plain edged blades, but I received a Pacific Salt as a gift, and find the H1 very useful. I've heard even better things about serrated H1 blades, and I'm thinking about buying both a Salt 1 and a Atlantic Salt for my secondary EDC blade (the Pacific Salt is a bit large for that). However, I'm not sure if a fully SE blade is going to be as practical, although I wouldn't mind giving it a try.

Are there any significant disadvantages in carrying a fully SE blade?
 
The problem is that I don't have any practical experience with fully serrated blades, and hence no idea of to what degree they can perform tasks which are better performed with a plain edged piece. So I'm asking. I did think about that, and I do know the general advantages of carrying a serrated blade.
 
I always have a serrated blue Delica floating around in my left pocket. I know it can do anything, so it lets me carry a nicer or nastier model clipped in my right.

Nobody gets to use my Lum to slice up their Amazon boxes and who-knows-what.
 
Serrated blades do everything that Plainedge do....but better :D , tough as hell Spyderedge is the only way to go imho, great for a utility knife/edc. I only carry serrated blades for edc, never wished I had a PE instead. That H1 steel is becomming very popular, and with SE you won't have to sharpen it as often as PE, and if you have a Sharpmaker, its very easy to sharpen SE blades.
 
A serrated blade is bad for things like sharpening pencils. Any time you want to do a neat whitling or push cutting job the teeth will get in the way. They aren't as nice as letter openers either. I prefer to cut boxes with a smooth edge. They don't work as nicely for slicing plastic bags, they tend to snag. These may seem like trivial applications, but they are the knife uses that I went through in the last 4 hours.

Tell us what your most common applications are and we can give you our expectations for how a serrated blade would work on them.
 
Cutting includes mostly cardboard and hard plastic packing/straps, but that aside, I tend to use my knives for general food prep tasks as well. I should be using different blades for each, which I generally do, but I'm curious as to how they'll fare on food prep tasks and more mundane tasks.
 
Serrated blades cut meat even when they are dull. There was a time when the only serrated blades that you could buy were kitchen knives. They would tend to be carving knives, slicers, and bread knives rather than paring knives, butcher knives, or chef's knives. That is generally how things work out best in the kitchen. For slicing and dicing on cutting board a plain edge chefs knife works best. A serrated blade is clumsy for peeling and paring. When you are boning meat you may find a serrated blade helps to cut through the meat, but it cuts kind of raggedly. When you are slicing sort of in the air like carving a turkey the serrated slicer can be handy. When you are trying to break through a hard bread crust without squishing the loaf a serrated blade can be nice. If you are sawing through fish a serrated blade is helpful.

If you don't keep your knives sharp it can be very helpful to have serrated blades. They can rip and saw through things even when quite dull.
 
I used to only carry a 50/50 Delica for years. I've had my SE Salt for the last few months and it is INCREDIBLE. I work for an auto parts store and everyday we receive freight in those green plastic totes. The totes are sealed with numbered tags secured with plastic zip-ties. The zip-ties are pulled tight, so with the Delica, I could only get the plain-edge part in the zip-tie. The plain-edge would slip like crazy on the slick plastic, the serrated edge on my Salt on the other hand: when I pull back my hand, it looks like the zip-ties just popped off of the tote! I have yet to find anything that the SE won't handle around my job.

There is that little bit of plain-egde at the tip if you need it.

As far as sharpening pencils: I like the serrated edge better! You just place the end of the pencil in one of the serrations and whittle away! Makes a nice sharp point!


Flinx
 
I carry one of each. I find my PE to be more useful for most of my tasks. However the SE comes in handy often. I like the chisel ground tip for scraping. And I like the SE for wireining (because i can close the knife on the wire and it wont slip out, it will cut instead). Also the small teeth are great for stripping wires. Basically I use the PE for alot of general things, but the SE makes some tasks much easier. I would feel unprepaired without both, but thats the variety of stuff I encounter.
 
I carry a SE Atlantic Salt every day. I love having it at work, since 90% of the cutting I do with work involves boxes and bags that hold wet/greasy food. I don't have to worry about keeping it dry or totally clean and these sort of things don't require finesse or a clean cut.

Outside work, I use my plain edge knife more (usually a Benchmade or Microtech).

The Salts don't come in combo edges, so you don't have to worry about that choice. :p

I would say get a Salt 1 in plain edge, and an Atlantic Salt serrated. You'll probably want the plain edge with a curved blade and a point, so that'd be the Salt 1. I find that the kind of work I do with my SE knife doesn't require a point, so SE Atlantic Salt. Although there's something to be said about one of each for the Salt 1. Set the clip on one for left hand carry, or carry the second one inside your waist band (that's how I do it). So light and thin you'll forget it's there until you need it.
 
As an experiment I started carrying an SE FRN Delica as well as my PE main blade and on the whole, the experience was very positive. It is always there now.

I never got on with serrations until someone on the Spyderco forum said that if the serrations are hanging up then they are not sharp enough. I sharpened and a whole new world opened up lol.

There are very few materials that both edges cut well so it is nice to have both there available.

If you're interested in my 'experiment', I wrote about it here.
 
What I have observed (and this BTW is in accordance with Sal’s observations as well) is that in pure cutting a SPYDERCO serrated blade will last about twice as much as the plain edged will.

Let’s examine though the various facets of the use of an EDC knife. In doing so, we will assume that we examine the same knife in two different versions: one with a PE and one with a SE. I personally carry a SE POLICE which I have customized its handle thus increasing its grip significantly.

If I want to open a plastic bag, I just use the tip of it and the bag will open cleanly in a blink of an eye. If I want to sharpen a pencil, it is easily done by using one of the broad serrations and I just push cut from there on. In fact, I suggest you try it out your self and you will amazed by how easily you will get a very sharp pencil! Then again, I have to tell you that I keep my POLICE hair splitting sharp, thanks to the SHARPMAKER. I mean, if I barely run it down my forearm I will get a hairless swath before I know it – it gets that sharp! On any synthetic material the SE will the lead the way Vs. the PE.

Now, I must admit that for certain applications that require a very fine cutting the PE has its merits: for slicing and dicing I would rather choose a PE knife. However, try to cut something that has a hard crust on it with a PE and then with a SE and then you will see for your self which one has the advantage: clearly the SE! The SE with sharp serrations will also cut a tomato much easier than the PE.

What about letter opening? There, since this is more like a push cut operation, the PE is better suited. This doesn’t mean though that the SE will not cut it open but it will give more of a jigged cut.

Finally, let’s talk about the bad time at which you will have to resort to your knife to defend your self and / or your loved ones. To me, it is beyond any doubt that the SE blade will produce a much deeper cut by about 50% than the PE. When someone has to cut an opponent, he or she needs to perform a cut similar to cutting a stake; in other words, they have to run the length of the blade over their target and not hack through it. This is what Mike Janich also advocates in his book “Knife Fighting – A Practical Course”. Besides, hacking is better suited to large blades and not blades in the range of 3 to 4 inches.

Of course, it takes more to sharpen a serrated blade but if you get it right, I think the outcome is really worth the extra labor grease. As far as a sharp tip is concerned, all the following models will give you that: DELICA, NATIVE, MILITARY, PARA-MILITARY, RESCUE (C14BL) and POLICE. Of all these knives, the RESCUE (C14BL) will give you a sharp tip but not a pointed one. Furthermore, the MILITARY will give the most tip in terms of length.

I hope that helps,

George :)
 
I guess the best way to find out is to try carrying a SE for awhile and see how it fits you.
 
SE is fine for edc imho, carry a police SE or delica SE for utility work, never a problem, only con is they are harder to sharpen and dont do a few jobs as well as PE (ie fine cuts)

are just fine for SD, not better than a PE but are ok, imho a well designed plain edge knife is hard to beat, they have been around a while. they my look more "intimidating" to some.
 
SIFU1A said:
they my look more "intimidating" to some.
Click to expand...

True that. It's been my experience that non-knife people, and even a lot of people who would be OK with a fairly mild-mannered PE "pocketknife", get pretty freaked out by the full Spyderedge. That agressive look that so many of us love is just too scary for a lot of folks.
 
Ritt said:
True that. It's been my experience that non-knife people, and even a lot of people who would be OK with a fairly mild-mannered PE "pocketknife", get pretty freaked out by the full Spyderedge. That agressive look that so many of us love is just too scary for a lot of folks.
Click to expand...

I will agree on that. In many cases a psychological deterrent aids greatly in a self defense situation.
 
My favorite Spyderco is a Native with a combo edge blade. Just use the PE tip to cut more neatly or the serrated part of the blade to really work on something tough. I have several knives with combo edges and they are awesome.

SP
 
My very EDC is a SE Delica I carry for a few years now (spends more than 95% of the time with me). I find absolutely no problem with it and believe me I cut all sort of things, from paper to food.
It is true the edge is a bit more difficult to maintain than a PE, but a 204 should do.
 
Oh yeah! A 204 is a must for serrated edges. Its amazing how quickly you can bring the edge back. :D

Flinx
 
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